Journey to the Great Lakes: Old Mother & Father Lead Tibetan Trek.

The subjects in this film are members of a nomadic tribe in Tibet. Every year during the spring, this Tibetan tribesmen embark on a three-month trekking journey to the great lakes to fetch salt and back. This journey involves four men. Each of the four men has a position and roles. The four areas are Margen, Pargen, Zopon, and Bopsa. Margen is' the Old mother, 'and his duties are those of a real mother, includes all cooking from Tea to all meals while on the journey. Pargen is' the Old Father,' His job during the journey includes that of an actual father in a family. He makes burnt offerings, distributes meat, and prepares dumpling soup for anything to be discussed in other tents. While on the journey, Zopon is the Lord of the Animals and takes care of the herd. He takes the yaks to the grasslands and takes care of their health. The last position is the Bopsa, who is the novice and usually a young man. The beginner is the favorite son of the Salt Men and is taught the group's ways in the course of the trekking. A ritualized ceremony usually performed to make the novice a Salt man.

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Women are not allowed into the salt lakes. It believed some time back, a woman went to the lakes and fetched a lot of salt, and her greed angered the lakes. If women get included in this team, the salt will disappear.

Livelihood and the Culture

The salt men live in the Tibetan plateau and the Himalaya. Throughout their lives, they get subjected to harsh and extreme weather. From drought, famine, and freezing periods characterized by snow fell. Sometimes one can mistake the snow covered ridges with the cone-shaped heaps at the lakes. Salt men live in temporary tents. Usually, they are herders and nomads, a practice they highly regarded for more than the previous 2000 years. In Tibetan, they are known as drokpa, meaning high-pasture people. Their primary activity is Nomadic pastoralism, although they supplement the extraction of salt, which they practice barter trade for grains. When the sale price is reasonable, they exchange salt with barley. The salt men are highly religious and ritualized people for every stage in their three and a half months journey; they pray and perform rituals for success and safe trip. To cluster their identity, they have Salt Men Language that they use at the lakes.

Comparison between the Salt Men and Afro- Eurasian Nomads

Both Tibetan nomads and Afro-Eurasia nomads' societies form of leadership is Kingdom; for example, the mention of King Pharaoh of Egypt and the Kingdom of Ling in the film. Some Afro-Eurasian lived in the Caucasus Mountains, just like the salt men who live in the high plateaus of the Himalayas. In both groups, rituals were part of hereditary ceremonies, and horse-riding pastoral nomadism gets practiced.

There differences between Afro-Eurasia and Tibetan nomadic pastoralists. The salt men nomads are peaceful and pray for a more united world through teachings of the Buddha, while the nomads in chapter 3 are violent and always ready for war. The Afro-Eurasian nomads use horse-drawn Chariots to enable smooth movement in their mission while the salt men are trekking. Afro-Eurasian is more developed in terms of Engineering skills and metal work than the salt men nomads.